Ireland held on for a narrow, 20-17 victory in their second SANZAR Invitational Under-21 Championship in Australia onSaturday.
Having lost their opening match to England (15-10), the Irishbadly needed to win and this was achieved albeit in a hugelyphysical encounter in Sydney.
Ireland struggled for most of the match against an average Argentinian team, and on this evidence they are going to face a very trying day next Wednesday when they take on New Zealand in the final pool match; the baby All Blacks having trounced England 63-3 on Saturday.
Garryowen's Jeremy Staunton kicked four penalties, whilecaptain and centre Mossie Lawlor dropped a goal.
Ireland's only try was provided by St Mary's College hooker Gavin Hickie following a beautifully judged pass from front row colleague Niall Treston.
Ireland led 17-10 at the interval but largely struggled to establishany rhythm and they were the more relieved side at the final whistle.
IRELAND: S Young (Ballymena); A Maxwell (Ballymena), K Lewis (DU), M Lawlor (Shannon), G Brown (Blackrock); J Staunton (Garryowen), B O'Riordan (UCD); S Phillips (Saracens), G Hickie (St Mary's), N Treston (Blackrock); N Breslin (UCD), D Browne (Galwegians); P Malone (Bruff), A Hickey (Dolphin), S Jennings (St Mary's). Replacements: R Flanagan (Bruff) for Phillips; D Dillon for Browne.
French coach Bernard Laporte praised his players Sunday for keeping their cool in what he called a dirty Springbok performance during the 20-15 second Test victory for the hosts on Saturday which tied the series at 1-1.
The 36-year-old former scrumhalf, who has had two poor Six Nations tournaments but has recorded wins over the All Blacks and the Springboks in his year-and-a-half reign, criticised the English referee Chris White for not being harder on their opponents' foul play.
The dour battle resulted in three players being sin-binned, includingWorld Cup-winning lock Mark Andrews who bore the brunt of Laporte's ire and who had been cleared after being cited by the French for headbutting Fabien Galthie in the first Test.
"I saw several moments of intolerable fouls," Laporte said. "Whatreally irks me is that I had asked the players to be disciplined and not to stray ouside the rules of the game.
"And what happens as soon as the game starts? Jean-Jacques Crenca is punched and Gerald Merceron took six or seven blows during the game.
"That's without taking into account Mark Andrews' efforts during thematch.
"The referee should have been much tougher but I am delighted that the French players kept their cool as its good for the image of our team," he added.
Laporte, who got the French post on the back of guiding StadeFrancais from the Third Division to become French champions in just five years, said he had seen plenty in the two Tests to give him encouragement for the future.
"I felt that this team had real soul in both matches," he said.
"Whats more we performed well in the most important parts of the game. "However, we still have to take advantage of the time when we have the ball," he added.
Laporte said that he would make several changes for the final test match of the Southern Hemisphere tour against the All Blacks in Wellington next Saturday.
"I will certainly make some changes because the two test matches have been very tough physically an d left their mark on several players," he said.
Meanwhile, commentators in South Africa's newspapers yesterday slammed the Springboks' 20-15 win against Franceas a "testosterone triumph" that was "nowhere near worth 250 rand($30) to watch".
The Sunday Times, with its "testosterone triumph" headline, concluded that the Boks relied on "sheer bloody-mindedness".
"In the first half they mistook testosterone for tactics and weren'thelped by English referee Chris White, who got two vital decisions palpably wrong," it said, naming Mark Andrews, Albert Van den Berg and Butch James as "the appointed aggressors".
The All Blacks have named an unchanged squad for Saturday's Test match with France in Wellington.
The New Zealand selectors have chosen the same set of players who were so impressive in their 67-19 demolition of Argentina on Saturday.
